✯✯✯✯✯
Usually when coming-of-age films are described as relatable by their biggest fans, there’s a certain extent to which it would also mean the best. Then comes a film like Todd Solondz’s Welcome to the Dollhouse, which isn’t any ordinary film about the junior high school experience but one of the most cruel films that you could ever have imagined to be made about that point of your life. When talking about a filmmaker like Todd Solondz, it’s not hard to stray far away from words like “bizarre,” “misanthropic,” or “idiosyncratic,” and his sophomore feature captures every facet of that about him. It’s a film that captures everything that one would absolutely hate about their middle school experience by tapping into the most sensitive areas of your memories of having once undergone that period of your life. The more you feel relieved, you also see someone else suffering something you did, and Welcome to the Dollhouse might make you laugh at one’s own humiliation – to the point you feel bad about it too.